Pulling it all together

The last thing that we needed to finish was the electric chair scene with Kyle we added movement to this during the time when he is being electrocuted to show the crazy thoughts that would have been going through his brain. Once we finished this we were able to run the performance through and continue to find things that need improving such sharp arm movements in seven devils and some off the speech for some off the scenes. Doing this also enabled us to work out what we needed for props and how we could light the performance in order to give the effect that we want and make the audience more creeped out. However at this point we felt ready and all we needed to do was set it in the tunnels which we did on the day. This was hard due to making sure everything fit in the space we had and that it still looked effective. If the space was to small we had to make sure we fit and if it was too big we made sure that we filled it with the presence of the people acting within it.

Developing Ideas- Day 16

In todays lesson we stared off by looking at the ending of the gate scene while Ashley's scene which we had now decided didn't have Dom in. While everyone else was doing this I worked on what was going to be said on the video to 'relax' us before the 7 devils piece.

Once we had worked on these 2 scenes we went on to running from the beginning off what we had so far to see if we could change anything and make it better. When doing this we realised that how Dan and Freya were acting as Doctor and Nurse was making it comical and this was taking away from the eere affect that we wanted so we needed to make are that they took it more serious and tried not to bounce off of each other to much. We also had comments on Carl's movement scene making sure that we are all in the right places and we had to changed the beginning slightly because we didn't have a TV and we needed him to be introduced in order for Dom and the audience to know what was wrong with him. 

Developing Ideas- Day 14 and 15

On day 14's lesson I wasn't in due to exams so scene which didn't involve me such as dom and Dan's scene and Ashley scene was worked on in order to keep the process going while people were off for exams.

On day 15's lesson we worked on all the little scenes that needed to be finished like the Jesus scene, Dom and Dans scene. While other people worked on that Toby, Meg and I looked at Toby's character and started to discuss the moveologue and how Toby's character could act. Earlier that lesson Kyle had looked up something that could be wrong with Toby as he seemed normal. So we thought that he could be okay then have random out bursts of anger. However Toby wasn't to sure on this character to begin with as he has played many characters like this before. So he wanted to make his character have meaning to it in his moveologue by showing his true deep means for his problems and wanted to express this in what he says and the way meg moves.

Developing Idea- Day 13

During todays lesson we worked on finishing the 7 devils movement piece and carls movement piece due to Dan being missing we could only do scenes without him and these were the movement scenes. When we were adding to the 7 devils piece we wanted to make it as creepy as possible due to it being the last scene and the music really allowed us to do this. We made every movement jumpy so that it added to the effect to the music and one thing we needed to do was make sure everything was sharp and in time for example when we bang on the chairs if this isn't on time then it will not have the same effect. When moving on to carls movement piece we also wanted everything to be timed right so that it had the effect that we were in carls brain. We also needed to make sure with each movement we were using the right hand and moving our body in the same way in order to show that we are the same person in carl mind. 

Developing idea- Day 12

In todays lesson we worked on Kyles electric chair scene and while others did this the rest off us worked on developing other scene in order to incorporate hints that Dan and Freya aren't really the doctor and nurse. I helped Tom with developing his scene so that he towards the end of the scene he added quotes from the bible about lying in order to show the audience that there isn't something right and there are liar within our performance however the audience will need to work out who is lying. Once we had done this we worked on scripting this scene again in order to make the language right for someone who is a follower of Jesus Christ to the terminology had to be right. We then viewed the electric chair seen and spoke about how we thought more needed to be added to it and possible movement would work well when he was being electrocuted.

Risk Assessment

Hazard	involved	Likelihood	Severity	Control measure
Falls during the lift in performance	Cast (5)	Unlikely	medium	·    Cast well-rehearsed in space ·    Sturdy chair ·    On even flat ground
Trips and falls	Cast (12) and audience (20)	Even	mild	·    Cast well-rehearsed in space ·    Safety brief given ·    Pathways clear ·    Pathways well lit ·    Any hazards are marked ·    Audience accompanied by cast at all times ·    Cast and audience where suitable footwear
fire	Cast(12) and audience (20)	unlikely	severe	·    No fire is used in performance ·    Fire exit signs in place
Items falling from the tunnel	Cast (12) and audience (20)	Unlikely	medium	·    No items are hung from a height ·    The tunnels have been checked for any lose debris.
Claustrophobia or difficulty to breath due to dust air	Audience (20)	Possible	mild	·    Warn audience of the space ·    Warn audience of conditions

Developing Ideas- Day 10 and 11

In todays lesson we worked on carls movement piece developing it and adding everyone into it while trying to extend the piece in order to develop carls character more this lesson was mostly there to discuss and talk about how we include different people into it and how while developing carls character. 

In the next lesson I wasn't there due to an exam so everyone began to put stuff into order so we know where everything would go and what position things would go in and what we needed to do. In this lesson they also decided on what we were going to do for the ending and decided that it would involve Freya and Dan not being actual doctors and really being mental patients to an the doctor went missing ages ago. This helped to give the ending that we originally wanted as it made the audience question the whole performance.

Developing Ideas- Day 9

In todays lesson we worked on my scene and for this I wanted Dan, Freya, Dom and myself. I wanted this to be a scripted piece in which developed my character and i wanted them to get to know me by the conversation in which we were having. We wrote our script and added stage combat in which helped to show how being in the asylum frustrated me even though I wasn't insane I was just said to be  that because I did something that society deemed unfit. My character interests me because it makes the audience question if i am insane or if i am normal and because of the anger my character explains this helps to show this. While we did this scene the other group worked on a movement piece for Carl to show his schizophrenia and how his multiply personalities are all him.

Developing Ideas- Day 8

In todays lesson we finished deciding characters then we got into groups and started developing scenes. I got into a group with Kyle, Tom, Dan s, Dom and Freya so we decided that we would work on the scene that works on Toms character as he is the second coming of Jesus. which we said would be in the long corridor that looks like a church. We started off with him saying the lords prayer and then continue on to him interacting with the psychiatrist. This interaction showed how his fantasies should not be accommodated and how they should not let him run a church. Once we did this we then shared our ideas with the other group and they had created the scene for meg which was near the gate. 

Developing Ideas- Day 7

In todays lesson we started to talk about how we could develop the mental asylum idea and how we could include each off our characters and deciding what was wrong with each off our characters. We spoke about how as we go through the tunnel we meet each different character and the way that the audience would be led through is by the psychiatrist who is there finding a patient to look at for his research. We researched what kind of characters that each off us can be. We had more unusual characters due to us deciding to set in 1960s so we had characters like mine who gave birth out of marriage and Dan's character who claimed criminal insanity. This was a long process to develop this with discussing different ideas and making sure we know what we wanted to happen. We also decided that the audience was not going to be directly involved with us and they would be looking through the eyes of the psychiatrist. 

Developing Ideas- Day 6

We went to fort Amherst and looked around the place and get lots of picture to be able to create the performance off of and why we were looking round we were told about the history of fort Amherst and the tunnels. The guy who showed us around told us about how one of the tunnels that went of fort Amherst was a mental asylum. This got us thinking about how we could go back to one off our original ideas about crazy people being drawn to the asylum however it can now be a mental asylum as it is site specific.

Developing Ideas- Day 5

In todays lesson we started looking in depth at how we could develop our ideas further by discussing it in a group and creating a spider diagram off all our ideas and what they could create. We first decided that it would be set in the near future but when we began to discuss more we decided that it would be set in the presence and there will be a sense of lost electricity/fossil fuel. We then decided that batteries are scares and this has happened due to something happened. We spoke about how through out the story we would have previews off everyone's life involved. We went on to discuss how there needs to be a purpose to the story for example them being evacuated to somewhere which may be better for them or may be worst but you have to be selected in order to go there. We then drew a picture of the tunnel off what our teacher remembered from the previous time she went in there and we decided on different points in which things could happen and what could happen at these point. Such as a religion aspect, a relationship and a family. We then finished by trying to create  ideas to see if this worked for our performance.

Developing Ideas- day 4

In today’s lesson we split into groups and started to look at how we could put the 3 ideas that we had decided are our favourite together with altering them to make them fit. Our ideas included having a dinner party and playing ourselves making the audience believe that everything that is occurring is real. Our next ideas was a tour guide being drawn away from the group and then another taking over by they are no longer able to leave the tunnels. The last idea was on about a distant future where there is no source of power and someone has invited us to fort Amherst to get some power or batteries and now the currency that we have. Our groups idea was to have them touring the fort but this underlying story is occurring where these people are trying to gain this source of power on the outside but when they get into the tunnels they are involved in this story and part of it trying to find what they need. When we did this some off us moved round and then we started to discuss the ideas. We then got into one big group and started to talk about what we liked what we didn’t and what we could do to stop it being cheesy so in order to do this we said that most off our piece needed to be things we are good at like movement, monologues and scripted.

Developing ideas- day 3

 In today's lesson we split into groups again and had to think of another idea which would work in one part of the tunnel. Due to having many ideas to do with tours we thought about how the tour could go from the outside of the tunnel to the inside. I came up with the ideas that we could use walkie talkies as this could make it creepy due to the fact you may not know whos on the other end or it may become cracky. While coming up with this idea we decided that the person doing the tour could end up going off and someone else takes the tour over and this person isn't quite right and they go to evacuate but they cant as this person has looked the gate behind them and as they try and get out the other way they are unable to due to things happening through out the tunnel. The other groups during this time come up with other ideas such as a night at Fort Amherst which involved our audience thinking it was a night to celebrate our achievements when really things began to go wrong. after this we sat down and wrote all our ideas we had down in order to know which ones could be worked on and which ones couldn't. The ideas that we liked most was our idea we created this lesson, the Jordan idea and the night at Fort Amherst. After we had decided on this we looked at elements from the other ideas that we liked but would have been hard to show. An example of this was the idea of people with mental problems being drawn to the Fort for a specific reason however we excluded that as we felt that it was clique. 

Developing idea- Day 2

In this lesson we started off by doing research on our location in order to be able to create a piece which had some relevance to the history that Fort Amherst has due to it being site specific it needed to be relevant to the location otherwise the point of it being specific to where we are performing is lost. My research that I got:

In 1667 the Dutch raided the River Medway and attacked Chatham’s Royal Dockyard.  During the devastating attack, thirteen ships were destroyed and two were taken including the flagship of the fleet, the ‘Royal Charles’.  At that point in time there were no defences protecting the Dockyard against a land based attack; and the raid by the Dutch led to a review of the defences protecting this important site.  As well as improved defence of the River Medway, the review included proposals to protect the landward side of the Dockyard which would also serve to disrupt an invasion party heading towards London.  This is where the story of Fort Amherst and Chatham Lines begins. 

In 1708 plans were beginning to be drawn up to construct a fortification to protect the Royal Dockyard from a land based attack.  In 1714 land was bought for the construction of the fortifications but work did not start until 1755.  The fortifications were to be built on the ditch and rampart principle; this was a common method of fortification construction during this period.

Part of the site chosen included a chalk pit with a number of caves.  These caves were extended between 1776 and 1805 to provide an underground labyrinth of tunnels, protected underground gun positions and protection in the event of a siege.  The tunnels contain many interesting and important features including a well, privies, loopholed defences, cannon positions and defendable gateways.

To ensure the protection of the Dockyard, three defendable gateways were constructed to control and defend access into the area protected by the Chatham Lines.  One of these gateways, the Upper Barrier Guardhouse, can be found within the lower portion of Fort Amherst.  The guardhouse housed a small garrison to defend the route from Chatham town by the use of a drawbridge, loopholed walls and a set of three heavy gates.  The barrack rooms within this building have been restored for your enjoyment.

Although Fort Amherst and the Chatham Lines were never put to the test, we can see from its design it would have made a formidable defence against any invasion force.  In 1820 the defences were declared obsolete due to better artillery equipment with a greater firing range.  The whole of the fortifications were used as a training ground during the Victorian period and the practice sieges were so popular that thousands of people came to Chatham to watch them.  VIPs were given seating areas upon the Casemated Barracks that once stood in the Lower Lines and also upon Prince William’s Barracks within Fort Amherst.  One of these sieges is described by Charles Dickens in his book ‘Pickwick Papers’.

During WWII the tunnels were utilised by the Anti-Invasion Planning Unit and Civil Defence, who used a section as their headquarters.  This is where Civil Defence was co-ordinated for the North Kent area in the event of bombing as well as support and assistance to the general public after such an incident.  A section of the tunnels has been reconstructed into the Civil Defence HQ as it was in 1939.

In the late 1970’s a group of enthusiasts were given permission by the Ministry of Defence to start tidying up the site, with the intention of restoring Fort Amherst.  In 1980 the Fort was purchased from the MoD by the Fort Amherst and Lines Trust and public open days began.  In subsequent years additional areas of the Fort were purchased and the Fort Amherst Heritage Trust now owns and manages 20 acres of the fortifications.  Half of this land has been carefully restored and further areas will be restored over time.

Fort Amherst remains the most intricate part of the Chatham Lines.  The underground works, complicated gun batteries, Haxo Casemates, Grand Magazine and the important defensive Guardhouse are just some of the many fascinating features on this site that visitors can explore.  Fort Amherst has been described Britain’s largest Napoleonic fortress.

By doing this research we saw that is was used for communication and for defence so this could be a good thing to look at. It also helped us look at how the tunnels were used in conjunction with the dockyard in order to defende Medway from any invasion. This research was a crucial part of what we looked at when creating our piece however it did not need to be a historic story it just needed to include elements. In this lesson we went on to discuss as a group all the different ideas we had so far and how they could be changed to be made relevant to the story and what we could do in order to improve scenes.

Developing our ideas- Day 1

When we first decided on the location we had to decide if we were going to do a scripted piece or devising. However this was a struggle because as a company we are better at scripted pieces however we have a number in our company that made it hard to select a play which would accommodate us and out location. We needed to make sure we thought of as many ideas as we could in order to create a diversity and make sure our idea was as good and developed as we could make it. So we started by getting more pictures to look at my group got the picture on the left of the bridge. We wanted to create a different idea from what anyone had created before. So we made the scene that we put together futuristic. We thought about really major consequences of leaving the EU and what we could lose from it. So we spoke about power sources and  how we would be without power and the currency would no longer be money it would be batteries or some sort of capsule with a energy source inside. Our scene developed into a place where someone has this power and each of us are drown to this place to get this power source and we need it in order to survive. When creating this idea i came up with the idea that we could act like the audience isn't there for the beginning of it and then when we enter the tunnels from the outside the audience become part of the story. During this lesson there was a war idea also created as Fort Amherst was a military base. 

Site specific- choosing a location

When deciding on our location for site specific we started by getting into groups and we put together lots of different locations in the area and put them into a massive spider diagram. The first idea that our group looked into was the dockyard and looked at the different places within the dockyard as we thought it had an old and weird feel to it. Each of the different places within the dockside could have been used for very different ideas as they all had different looks to them. For example the court yard has a very old look so could have been set in the distance past but the boat house has a very modern abandon warehouse feel so could be set in modern day. When we discussed the ideas with the other groups we all had some similar idea e.g fort Amherst, Upnor/Rochester castle, tap'n'tin and others including an orchard near where we live. The next lesson we came in and started to talk about what we wanted from our performance. One of the things we wanted most from our performance is that we wanted it to be a promenade. We also wanted it to be creepy and play with your mind however we didn't want it to fall into the trap of being like a horror maze or being clique. Once we had done discussing we had to get into our groups again and had to pick one location and discuss one idea that we had for the location. Our group decided to pick Fort Amherst and thought about how this would fit what we wanted from the our performance and we thought that it could be a really good if we went down the idea of having a mental hospital within the tunnels. However when we shared the idea we discussed how it would have to be as if the patients were drawn to the prison for a reason because Fort Amherst from our knowledge wasn't a mental asylum. In the next lesson we were given a picture of Fort Amherst tunnel in order to create an idea from and we decided to continue to pursue the mental hospital idea and began creating a movement piece. We decided at this point that we could notice the audience and involve them in our movement piece. We also decided that we had a Doctor who was constantly changing through out the performance so you would never know who the doctor is. We then created this movement piece with involved the song seven devils as the song is jumpy and has a creepy feel to it. It starts with us in chairs and at each sharp bet we has sharp movements and we continued to develop but we didn't get to finish it. We then shared our ideas with the other group who had the idea of a boat house and them trying to get a boat in order to escape a post apocalyptic world. We went on to discuss the ideas and how we could work on them and what we liked and didn't like about them. In the next lesson we went on to look at an outside picture on Fort Amherst and developed our idea more by looking at it from a therapeutic point of view and how the patients within this asylum we have created are calmed and controlled. However by creating this we decided that our idea become to fall short as it became hard to create something with very little substance behind it so we needed to have a more concrete story and characters in order to make it more effective. In the next lesson we sat down and choose the places which we all liked the most then did a vote to choose the location. The vote came out as Fort Amherst was where we were going to perform so now we need to settle on our idea.

Letter in the character of Rose

Dear mum

Mum i know you understand what i did was okay and that you understand why I did it. You know how i just wanted Natty to be mine and now shes om heaven where no one else can have her till im out off here and i can join her. Shes lovely and so pretty and cute. Was i like that when i was little mum did you want me all to yourself just like i wanted Natty did you love me like i loved Natty. I can't wait to get out off here we could go to Rome like you did before as we were talking about Romans the other day and i would love to see what its really like. I really just wish I didnt have to be on these drugs anymore i just can't think like I used to and i miss that. Do you miss me mum? Do you really miss me? Cause i really do miss you

Love Rose 

Rose from Kinseys point of view

Rose is completely and utterly thick. No wonder she got caught for what she did. I know we all got court which i suppose you can say im stupid too really. Although she doesn't get it she thinks what she did was okay, that people need to know the truth but it not okay what she did to that little girl Natty. Its not alright what I did but I know its wrong but nothing will every be alright for us again. People are just lining up at the door. George and I then Rose in close second. The drugs she on I just don't get it surely shes not smart enough to do anything without the drugs. I think that she just needs to shut up about Natty. We get it. You used to baby sit and everything but come on, let it go. It's in the past for a reason. Oh and that stupid fucking rule book. No one really cares about it and then all of a sudden in the middle of a discussion, we are reminded of every fucking rule in the book. We don't care. We don't care about a fucking word that Rose has to say but she just doesn't stop. The thought of being stuck with her for a long time seeing her everyday makes me regret what I did even more.

The play itself

The play was made for the National theatres connections
Connections is the National Theatre’s nationwide youth theatre festival. Each year it offers a unique opportunity for youth theatres and school theatre groups to stage new plays written for young people by some of theatre’s most exciting playwrights, and to perform in leading theatres across the UK.
This is why is is aimed at young people and has jokes that younger people will understand. This play specifically was written by Anthony Horowitz who has very clevely created a play which has dark matters and put a twist on it in order to make it funny.

character profile

Name: Rose
Age: 19
Nationality: british
Occupation: student
Current resident: mental institue/young offenders insitute
why she is here: she guessed with pianos and/or hammer. the child is guessed to be one she babysat. we also know that what she did would make people sick to hear.
Family: Her parents think what she did was disgustig but she talks about her mum so i believe she is unaware of how her parent must feel about her. This is probably to do with the fact she is on drugs in order to control her.
Mannerism: she is child like and is very figety as she constantly moves around and cant sit stil. she also talks a lot of rubbish and when she does talk she usually interupts everyone as so one really wans to listen to what she is saying.
mental illnesses: psycopath
biggest flaw: shes a murderer
best quality: shes funny without trying
other qualities: child like, drugged up, head in the clouds and smart but covered up by the drugs.
introvert/extrovert: Extrovert
deals with emotions: she doesnt like confrentation all though she always is the one trying to cause it and most the time it seem like she is doing it on purpose. she can also get angry very quickly about things like she cares about for example her rule book. She also get offended easily and believe people are picking on her alot.
Relationships she has with other characters:
she is firstly very sympathetic towards spec as everyone bullies him however. she also likes specs but she pretends that she doesn't to fit in with everyone else as she doesnt want to fit in. specs also seeks friendship in Rose so specs looks after him.
Allan is a person that Rose doesn't understand and doesn't get why he react in such a negative way to her. she also thinks Allans opinion are stupid and doesn't want Allan to be rude. However their relationship does improve through out the play at the begining they argue alot but as the play goes on and Allan talks about his past she begins to grow on him and him on her as she starts to show an interest in him.
Roses relationship with George is very wierd and he treats her as a little child and speaks to her like she doesnt understand. He also knows when Rose need help so always helps her out by looking out for her and she feels safe in his presence.
Kinsey thinks Rose is thick and misunderstand that this is because she takes drugs and this is why he gets annoyed at Rose as he doesn't get her.
Rose loves to wind up Milo even though she doesn't understand why he get angry quickly. Rose trys to wind him up for a joke as she thinks they are friend and she wants him to understand her.
short term goals: get the the important of being earnest done
Long term goals: get out off the institute and let people know the 'truth' 

Proxemics

Through the play of A handbag there is proxemics between many characters. The proxemics between the characters of George and Kinsey is very important through out the play because of their relationship before they came into the institute. So through out the proxemics need to be very distant as George is constantly avoiding the matter that he knows and this should be kept through out and if they move past each other then this should be very quickly and be abrupt. This is to show how George doesn't want to know Kinsey anymore as he believe this will make everyone see him as a better person as he is no longer linked to the crime he committed. However the proxemics can change when they begin to argue as this is when Kinsey feels that he can get closer to George even through George is trying to fight it until he finally gives in and there close as I believe this shows how they are close again and George has his control over Kinsey again. My Character of Rose has very close Proxemics with other characters through out the play due to the fact as she is playing a child like character due to the drugs so she feels like she needs to constantly be close to members of the group in order to feel involved and wanted by other. Where as specs of the other hand has very distant proxemics with other members of the group due to his character being very disconnected. Him being further out from the rest of the group shows that we know very little about who he is and why he is there. I feel like the character of Milo has very unusual proxemics as he is always involved however I feel his anger builds a wall with characters which he always break down when he becomes frustrated at certain characters which cause his proxemics to get smaller and then grow when he calms down more. I believe Allan's proxemics with other characters to be very simple as i believe he never get too close or too far away from any one character as he is very much stuck with his own thoughs. The only character i believe the gap and spacing will change with is with George as they have difference in opinions about the play which causes them to stay away from each other.

Setting

I believe that the place where a handbag is set is in an institute like broadmoor hospital which is the place in the picture and videos above how ever they are in a young offenders version. This hospital is a psychiatric hospital and I think this is the sort of place we are in order to try and make us better form all what we have gone through. I see it being set in a place with loads of big metal doors which are rarely opened and everything is plain and bare. This is why I think we need to have very minimal props and set for our piece. Broadmoor hospital has had some very well known killers and this is what I believe it is like at the place that our character are. I think this because when George and Kinsey argue Kinsey refers to how many pages they were over the paper so it is obvious whatever they had done was a maximum security job just like John Venebiles and Rob Thompson which we believe these 2 characters to be based on. I also know that it has to be high secure like Broadmoor because when Kinsey talks about coming in he talks about how all the doors he went through which get looked behind him. The reason why I think its going to very empty with little objects around is due to Rose talking about all the rules and how there not allowed staples or clocks.

Tuesday 15th March

In today's lesson due to our member of the group who played George not being there we could do very little. So we decided that we would learn our scripts. We did this by going through our scripts for 2 or 3 pages using our script to help then we would do it again with the script down and the person who was reading in for George prompted. This really helped us with getting our line better as we were working with each other and could use each other for cues.

Writing in role

Making people not understand me is one of the most tiring things I go through it’s a constant battle but if I’m honest I think I play off the whole innocent child act very well. Why should I let people understand me and get what I’m feeling and know what I’ve done. If I’m honest I think it was a good idea apart from be being looked away for it. Why should I let people understand me if they don’t understand my actions. Natty is mine and I wanted to keep it that way no one had no right to take her from me so I took her from them. So then we shared something special. Her face will always be in my memory her little smiley face. Natty will always be mine and when I pass we will be together again. Being in here is just my waiting place till I get out and find a way to be with her. I love the drugs they give me, they help me to dream about the picnics and the daisies. I miss those times. Understanding someone is just the beginning of it. If no one knows what I’ve done then I can have my memories to myself. I can keep them with me. Me being a little child makes me like Natty its makes me young and innocent. The tiredness is worth it making people not understand me is one of my best ideas of them all.

Thursday 10th March

In today's lesson we started to look at how we are as an actor looking at diction, tone, pitch, projection, accent, dialect, vocal control, breath control and support. When looking at these areas we had to give ourselves a rating and say our strengths and what we could improve on. I found that my 2 weakest areas where accent/ dialect and breath control rating myself a 4 in both. In accent/dialect I rated myself a 4 as i feel that I can only really do an american accent and find it hard to do other accents. However i am slightly better with dialect and am able to pick it up from different places very quickly. I could work on accents by looking at different accent tutorials when i get a specific character from that region and working on it till it sound right. I am lucky with Rose as we don't know where she come from so I can decide on my accent myself so instead of changing my accent for Rose I decided to use pitch and tone in order to get the audience to understand her. I am also not very good at breath control because when I have long chunks of speech to say which doesn't have much punctuation i have to gasp afterwards however this is working as my lung capacity is getting bigger with the more exercise I have been taking part in but in order for me to be able to speak for longer periods of time I need to learn to take my breath from deep within my lungs to draw a deeper breath so I can last for longer as this will also help when doing a musical. I really need to work on this as Rose as she tends to go of on a tangent and talking about stuff that isn't relevant for a long time. Once we had done this we went and worked on looking at the beginning without using our scripts as much as we could this worked well. However when off script some people are forgetting where they need to move too and this then throws where other people to move to. We need to be off scripts as quick as possible in order to come over these problems and make it look as slick as possible.

Monday 7th March

In today's lesson we looked at the part of the script where George and Kinsey argue and we began by discussing who has most control in the situation at first we thought it was Kinsey but when we spoke about it more we started to decide that George through out the scene is playing with Kinsey to make him seem like he has a sense of control in order to make him carry on with the play we believe this due to after the argument George refers to Kinsey as Colin which is his name before he went to the institute they are in so this was to show the power that George will always have over Kinsey as his the one who will alway know what hes done. Once we did this we started to run the scene trying it with kai being more aggressive which worked really well but it could be made better by the proximity between the 2 characters being kept where as when Kinsey trys to approach George he always move away this is in order to show how Kinsey will always go running back to George as he has the power. It also shows that even though Kinsey knows a lot and likes to cause an argument he is weak as it is alway like he is attached to George no matter what. Once we worked on this we went and did more research and learning lines as a group.

Thursday 3rd March

In today's lesson we looked at subtext within a part of our play and what you were thinking. We did this by using the clapping game in order to tell the audience what we are thinking at the precise moment. In the scene we choose I believe what Rose is doing is she is trying to get reactions from people but at the same time making everyone think she is innocent when really I think she is very intelligent. I see Rose as a character who is constantly trying to get a reaction from Milo (irene) however when he reacts she cowards away as if she is scared but i believe her to do this for sympathy. In this scene I also think that Rose as a character can show a lot of what she does through body language. For example when Milo snaps then she retires into her chair wit her head down.

Tuesday 1st March

In today lesson we started by looking at the characters of Rose, Specs, Allan and Milo (Irene) and there relationships with each other. I find as the character Rose that i am one of the only people who understand Specs and what is going through his mind however I feel like I don't show it.

After we finished this we went into our dance studio and started looking at our voice and how we can change it in order for our character role to be right. I wanted my voice to be very slow at time and drastic changes in pitch as this is how a child is when reacting to different stimulus for example when there angry there is a larger fluctuation in pitch compared to when your normally talk. It was hard doing today lesson due to us missing Kai who plays George is our main character. So we decided that Dom as specs would fill in for him. We then looked at specs re sighting of lines so make everyone understand what is going in on order for him to do this we needed to make sure his voices are different and the way he stand is right if this isnt portrayed right then it will be hard for them to get that he is showing other character Dom does this very well as he changes the pitch in his voice.

Thursday 25th February

The first thing we did in today's lesson was we looked at the characters of George and Kinsey and their relationships with every character. We started by looking at there relationship with one another as we believe them to be based on John Venibles and Robert Thompson so therefore they have a deep relationship outside of where they are so we discussed how we believe Kinsey to have control over George however much George won't admit it.
Once we done this we then went on to setting out play using our new idea of having the stage behind us and when we are doing the importance of being earnest then going down onto the floor when were not. We had to make sure that we go down at the right time so that it fits in with the script. Using the stage also give a good use of levels in order to make it look better and make it. When we went through the script we also looked at phrases that were meant to be funny as some people in the group didn't get it and it is important that people knew where they needed to say their lines in the right way in order to make the audience laugh.

Tuesday 23rd February

At the beginning of today's lesson we began by discussing our staging and how it would look as we were having the stage behind us. This is when we decided that when we were doing the importance of being earnest then we would be on the stage and when we aren't we would be on the floor in order to have a clear difference between the 2 in order to make it more obvious to the audience. Once we did this we then started to discuss the proximity between George in Kinsey. I thought how Kinsey should be constantly moving towards George and whenever he get close George moves away. I thought this should be unlying and not obvious to the audience but it would be interesting for the audience to figure out. Where as Kai thought is would be better for Kinsey to sit back and dig at George until Kinsey takes control in their scene. I think these are both good idea as they both show something different about Kinseys character. So we thought this would work well as it would look natural and different. We then started working on from page 18 making every movement look normal and if hes not forced. So in order to do this when people got angry they stood and when they become scared they sat and moved away.
We then worked on the scene between Kinsey and George again in order to remind them of when they move close to each other and when George moves away making sure the switch in power is obvious.

Monday 22nd February

In today lesson we started by looking from the begging of the play and looking at making notes on where we want to sit stand and have reasons behind this. For example I like to sit my character Rose on the floor a lot as children sit on the floor when they are young for assembly, circle time and story times so me siting on the floor with my leg cross shows this. I also thought about making sure that I remain in a childlike ways as this is important in order to keep up the act of my head being in the clouds due to the drugs that i'm taking. While doing this we stopped and started by deciding to change our positions in order for all the audience to see what we are doing at all times. 
We then went and did research for the rest of the lesson in order to work on our knowledge.

Why did Anthony Horowitz give Rose as my characters new name?

While deciding why Rose replacements name is what it is I did research in to the symbolism of roses. The first thing I can upon was that the flower expresses promise, hope and a new beginning. So I believe the reason why the institute gave her the name Rose was to give her a fresh so that she could start again and try and become a better person. The flower also expressing hope that may be what Rose as a character has in order for her to be able to get through her time in there that one day she will be forgiven and forgotten so she can leave and have her life back which is far from what she will ever have. The other symboles of the Rose is its thrones and these symbolies defense, loss and thoughtlessness. Rose I believe was also given her name because of how she suffered loss of her life outside of the institute and lose of the little girl Natty that she looked after. She also has a lot of defense within her characteristic because when it is mentioned about different items that I believe she used to kill Natty she get up tight and defends herself claiming that they are not hers. Rose can also be defensive when it comes to her talking about the rule book that she always refers to when anyone breaks a rule. She was also thoughtless in the acts that she took part in for her to end up being in prison.

Thursday 11th February

In todays lesson we started by discussing what ideas we had for costume and we did this by firstly deciding what normal UK prison uniform was. We then went on to thinking that white clothing is what people in mental institutes wear as its a plan colour which would not be a trigger for anyone. Kai then said in some situations they could wear different colour depending on why they are why there here. So I suggested that we have different colours depending on how bad we think they are.
Once we did this we then started from the beginning again using the table that we had added into our scene deciding how we could use the different levels in the first scene and how this would work in order to set the authority within the scenes.

Script analysis

'or little squares? That's how i used to do them. Natty used to love them. We'd go down to the bottom of the garden and we'd have a little picnic in the daises. Little Natty and me. We'd have little, tiny cups of tea out of a doll's house cup and i made sure they water was never scalding hot or anything like that. I put the knife away. That's why I wanted to do this play, because it reminded me of the picnics... the cucumber sandwiches. and when i imagine them, they're always cut into squares.' 

In this extract I think that Rose shows the love that she had for Natty when she looked after her. When analysing this script I firstly thought this due to the reference of them having picnics in the 'Daisies' as daisies symbolises love, innocence and purity. The symbolism of love I believe is how she feels for Natty and I feel it was because of this great love that Natty was killed. The symbolism of innocence and purity I believe is what Rose believes she is even after what she has done and this is also shown with a line earlier in the play: 'one day I'll be out of here and I'll tell them the truth.'. Rose even thought she is an intelligent girl who is on medication doesn't see what she has done wrong so still believe she is pure due to her psychopathic tendencies. She also could be a reference to what she is like now as her character comes across and innocent so it becomes hard to tell why she is in there.
The next part of the passage which shows how attached Rose is to Natty is how she refers to them as 'We'd' on several occasions. This is because we'd is past perfect tense as it is past tense and had together. This shows that Rose believes what her and Natty had was perfect and idyllic and that everyone should have this. This is strange for someone to think this after doing something horrific however this is what she liked about spending time with Natty as it was like there own utopia and i believe she refers to it as she missed what she had before her 'good idea'.
The next reference I found interesting was how she kept referring to items as being little. I believe Horowitz made Rose do this to act as if shes trying to convince herself that she was only little and didn't understand what she was doing even though she was old enough to baby sit her. On the other hand it could also be seen as she is trying to make Natty seem fragile and small and this is why she felt she need to look after her so much that it led to her death.
The referencing to square sandwiches it as one that makes me think when looking at this extract as she refers to them more then once. I like to think of this as a trigger word for Rose as when its bought up she goes of on a tangent about her past. I believe this may be a trigger word because everything around her are in box/ square like shapes for example the institution room they are in. As squares are enclosed have no gaps i like to refer this to how she is living in a box room with no way to escape. 
The final thing in the passage that I looked at was when she talks about putting the knife down and with her saying that it makes me think about is she killed Natty on purpose. The reference to the knife makes us think also that she has always had this side to her where she is willing to do something in which will get her what she want. This is also why this could have been a crime of passion as Natty stopped her getting what she wanted which could have been being with her.

Research on Lady Bracknell

Below is an analysis that I found on the character Lady Bracknell who is the character that Rose my character plays in 'The Importance of being Ernest'. This analysis helped me to understand Lady Bracknell and what place she plays in society and I want to really show this when I am acting her as she is very different from the character Rose . I want to show the difference between the character firstly so it is obvious to the audience but also so that it acts as a facade for what Rose really is which is simply a psychopath who killed a child. This is the opposite to Lady Bracknell as she is an upper class lady who has no passion or love in her heart where as Rose is a child who has to much love for other children even if this love took her too far. Just like Lady Bracknell, Rose has opinions and has mannerisms that betray and careful and calculated speaking pattern but this is not obvious due to the drugs she is one. So when I play Lady Bracknell as Rose I want her to be posh and sophisticated as if Rose is a good actor to foreshadow that the Innocent sweet girl she pretends to be is not really her it is only the drugs she consumes. 

The most memorable character and one who has a tremendous impact on the audience is Lady Augusta Bracknell. Wilde's audience would have identified most with her titled position and bearing. Wilde humorously makes her the tool of the conflict, and much of the satire. For the play to end as a comedy, her objections and obstacles must be dealt with and overcome.

Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wilde's opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative and repressive values, and power.

Her opinions and mannerisms betray a careful and calculated speaking pattern. She is able to go round for round with the other characters on witty epigrams and social repartee. Despite her current position, Lady Bracknell was not always a member of the upper class; she was a social climber bent on marrying into the aristocracy. As a former member of the lower class, she represents the righteousness of the formerly excluded. Because she is now Lady Bracknell, she has opinions on society, marriage, religion, money, illness, death, and respectability. She is another of Wilde's inventions to present his satire on these subjects.

As a ruthless social climber and spokesperson for the status quo, Lady Bracknell's behavior enforces social discrimination and excludes those who do not fit into her new class. Her daughter's unsuitable marriage is an excellent example of how she flexes her muscles. She sees marriage as an alliance for property and social security; love or passion is not part of the mix. She bends the rules to suit her pleasure because she can. Jack will be placed on her list of eligible suitors only if he can pass her unpredictable and difficult test. She gives him ruthlessly "correct," but immoral, advice on his parents. "I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over." It matters not how Jack finds parent(s), just that he do it, following the requirements for acceptability.

Lady Bracknell's authority and power are extended over every character in the play. Her decision about the suitability of both marriages provides the conflict of the story. She tells her daughter quite explicitly, "Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone. When you do become engaged to someone, I or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact." Done, decided, finished. She interrogates both Jack and Cecily, bribes Gwendolen's maid, and looks down her nose at both Chasuble and Prism.

Her social commentary on class structure is Wilde's commentary about how the privileged class of England keeps its power. Lady Bracknell firmly believes the middle and lower classes should never be taught to think or question. It would breed anarchy and the possibility that the upper class might lose its privileged position.

Wilde has created, with Augusta Bracknell, a memorable instrument of his satiric wit, questioning all he sees in Victorian upper-class society.

Monday 8th February

In todays lesson we look at how to really get our characters across in the right way so we started from page 18 when all the characters are on stage and looked at how they liked. I needed to make sure that I picked up child like mannerisms to make me seems as innocent as possible and make sure when my obsessive side come out that it is very obvious to the audience. When we got to Allan's long monologue on his life before he come to the place we are in. We wanted this to look like Allan's character was reminiscing and going of on a tangent and everything else said by anyone is irrelevant so this is why when people interrupt he just carry's on. When we started this Ashley played this by facing towards the audience and talking to them. However we decided that he couldn't be seen by the people in the audience to the side of him and become this was long we decided it was important for him to be seen by everyone as what he is saying shows a lot about his character. This is when we decided to move him so he was leaning on something on the left top corner of the audience. This meant that everyone could see him and the leaning made it seem relaxed and like he doesn't care that much about other peoples opinions. We also made him really slow down his lines using more pauses to carry on the effect of being relaxed and this helped to make what he was saying more dramatic.
For the other half of the lesson we went and did research on the play.

Mary Bell Research

Below is an article from the conviction of Mary Jane Bell after she killed 2 young boys by strangling them to death. I believe that my character Rose is based on Mary because of the way she killed the boys as from the script I believed that Rose strangled the little girl she used to baby sit and then smash her to pieces with a hammer. Mary is described as having a dominant personality and a very wordy attitude and I believe Rose is the same as she can be very dominant and controlling and that is why she has to be drugged to prevent her from using this in order to cause mayhem within the institution. However I believe Rose is different to Mary as I see her being older as she is able a baby sitter but she is 'cunning and insidious' which makes there personalities very similar. Although they have a similar story I dont think that Anthony Horowitz purposely made there character similar I think that he wanted to have aspects of different child killers through out time and put them into a play.

1968: Mary Bell found guilty of double killing

An 11-year-old girl has been sentenced to life in detention after being found guilty at Newcastle Assizes of the manslaughter of two small boys.Mary Bell is said to have strangled the boys, aged four and three, "solely for the pleasure and excitement of killing".

The jury heard Mary, also known as May, was suffering from diminished responsibility at the time and therefore found her not guilty of murder.

Her accomplice, known only as Norma, aged 13, who had been jointly charged with Mary, was acquitted.

Very grave risk

As the verdict was read out, Mary broke down and wept.

Mr Justice Cusack described her as dangerous and said there was a "very grave risk to other children if she is not closely watched".

Mary's mother and grandmother, who were sitting behind her on the benches, also wept when the verdict was announced.

Martin Brown, aged four, of Scotswood in Newcastle was found dead in a derelict house on 25 May. The body of Brian Howe, three, also of Scotswood, was found on waste ground near his home two months later.

The two girls, who were playmates, also lived in the Scotswood area of Newcastle. They denied the charges.

The court had earlier heard Norma give evidence in which she described how Mary had tried to strangle Brian Howe. She said Mary ignored her pleas to stop hurting the boy so she left them and next time she saw Mary she was on her own with Brian's dog.

Jurors were told despite the age difference, Mary was the more dominant personality with a very worldly attitude.

Rudolph Lyons QC said: "For example, when she was being questioned by a detective chief inspector about a charge of murder she said to him, 'I'll phone for some solicitors, they will get me out. This is being brainwashed."

He said she also tried to throw suspicion onto an innocent boy in a "very cunning and insidious manner".

He continued: "Both girls well knew that what they did was wrong and what the results would be."

Home Office psychiatrist Dr David Westbury told the court Mary had a psychopathic disorder for which she needed treatment.

The judge said: "It is a most unhappy thing that, in all the resources of this country, it appears that there is no hospital available that is suitable for the accommodation of this girl."

Mary is being held at a remand centre. It seems likely she will be sent to an approved school where she will be held in a secure unit.

Thursday 4th February

In todays lesson we went back into the hall but we only had the stage space to work with and when we got on to it there was a table in the middle so we decided that it might add something different to our scene by using the table to create another type of level. Once we had discussed this we started to scatter chairs around the table so they are all spread out and in site of the audience.
We then went from where we finished of the last lesson and again worked on levels. When we got to the scene with Kinsey and George on there own we wanted to make this obvious to the audience what they may have own and get the idea of who these 2 characters are based on and these are John Venables and Robert Thompson. So we wanted to show the power shift and who is in control in this 'friendship'. I believe Kinsey to be the one in control and the one who caused George to do whatever he did. As there conversation takes place Kinsey starts of very angry as George keeps control of him and everyone like he has through out the play until Kinsey has a switch which caused him to calm down an as he does this it caused  George to get angry which is where he loses the control of where this conversation and what he wants and I believe this is what happened on the outside world. I believe that George didn't want to do something and Kinsey knew how to push him to change his mind. We also showed this change in power my proximity. At the beginning of the scene George faces towards Kinsey and keep great distance between them. As George begins to lose control his body language changes so he turns from Kinsey as if he is shielding himself from what Kinsey has to say and as Kinsey gains he's control he get closer and closer to George until he is so close that George notices and moves away. I shows how Kinsey wants this friendship where as George refuses to except him again.
once we had done this we discussed how we wanted our stage area to look and if we wanted the area to look relatively normal or to make sure every thing is covered in foam and sponge so it looks like we aren't mentally safe. We decided that we would do some research into this to decide on what it is like in different types of prisons.